Following a bullpen game on Tuesday versus the Milwaukee Brewers, the Los Angeles Dodgers needed Clayton Kershaw to give them a strong performance on Wednesday. Kershaw answered the call and turned in a dominant 7-inning effort. He continues to pitch well in 2023 and Freddie Freeman dropped a truth bomb on his Wednesday outing in the Dodgers’ 8-1 win, per SportsNet LA.

“Yeah, that was huge for us,” Freeman said of Kershaw’s performance. “We needed Clayton to go deep in the game and he did exactly that, what he’s been doing his whole career, his whole life pretty much. We needed Clayton to step up big and he did that today. It was nice to be able to give him some run support.”

Los Angeles was put in a difficult position after Noah Syndergaard left Tuesday’s game early with a cut on his finger. The Dodgers still won the game 6-2, but they were forced to use seven relief pitchers to cover eight innings. If Clayton Kershaw hadn’t gone deep into Wednesday’s game, the Dodgers would have had to use certain relief pitchers on limited rest, which obviously isn’t ideal this early in the season. But Kershaw, in All-Star caliber fashion, took care of business for LA.

He surrendered just one earned run across seven innings of work to go along with eight strikeouts and no walks. Wander Suero, who was recently promoted to the big league club, followed Kershaw with a pair of scoreless innings to close out the game.

The Dodgers will travel home and enjoy an off-day Thursday before a rematch versus the San Diego Padres over the weekend at Dodger Stadium.